State Looks Into Land Sale Scheme

November 29, 1985|By Cory Jo Lancaster of The Sentinel Staff

TITUSVILLE — The state attorney's office is investigating a land sale scheme in which 15 investors lost about $570,000 after they were enticed with a forged option to purchase grove land on Merritt Island.

One man involved in the deal, Harrell Corley of Maitland, confessed to forging grove owner Richard Rummell's name to the option on the 90-acre Rummell Grove on north Merritt Island, prosecutors said. He pleaded no contest Oct. 14 to grand theft for using it to lure the 15 investors.

Corley, who has agreed to testify against any co-conspirators, will be sentenced Dec. 13.

Assistant State Attorney Warren Burk said he is investigating the scheme, but he refused to identify his target.

''This is a very complex case,'' he said. ''It will take at least a few months before anyone could be charged.''

The investors and owners of the grove, however, met with prosecutors last week to push them to file charges against two attorneys involved in the deal: Bill Lawless of Maitland, who initially represented the investors, and James McVeigh of Coral Gables.

Court records show McVeigh sold his share of a lease on the grove to Corley and his company, Corlachrista Inc. of Maitland, in early 1984. Corley said he then forged a $200,000 option to purchase the grove and sold it, along with the lease, to the 15 investors from Central Florida, Fort Lauderdale and New York.

In a suit filed in Brevard Circuit Court in June against McVeigh, Corley and his company, the investors claimed Corley and Lawless never recorded the real estate transfers. And on Feb. 15, after the investors had learned the option was forged, Corley signed back the lease to McVeigh without the investors' consent, they said.

Corley required each investor to be represented by Lawless and they relied on him ''to protect their interest by assuring that all titles and documents would be in proper order,'' the suit says.

''All of the people involved in this mess relied on the advice of attorneys,'' said Winter Park attorney John Willis, who is representing the investors in their suit. ''It's just horrendous. The whole legal profession could come out of this case with a black eye because of their actions.''

Willis said he will ask The Florida Bar to investigate all the attorneys involved.

Records show that once the lease was given back to McVeigh in February, he agreed to sell the 1985-86 orange crop from the land to Nevins Fruit Co. in Titusville for $150,000. The 1984-85 crop also was sold without the investors' knowledge, Willis said.

Corley claims McVeigh, who was acting as his attorney, told him it was legal for him to sign back the lease without the investors' knowledge.

McVeigh, however, said he did not know about the investors and took back the lease to prevent foreclosing, because he was not being paid. He said he believed Corley still owned the lease. He also said he was not acting as Corley's attorney, but merely was protecting his own interests.

McVeigh countersued the investors, owners of the grove and Willis on Nov. 15, claiming they plotted to ruin his reputation and take away his right to the lease and had harassed him.